In Digital Signage It's All About the Content

Having a sophisticated digital signage system capable of delivering content to hundreds, maybe thousands of screens while managing the delivery to unique locations from a centralized system is the new standard. Achieving this capability is a technological wonder. This is why digital signage has replaced static signage in many industries. Because of its usefulness, the global digital signage market will surpass $30 billion between 2024 and 2025.

The ability to deliver the content is just part of the process. Of equal importance is the quality of the content delivered. Here are 20 helpful tips about digital signage content.

The average attention span is very short at about 8.5 seconds and getting shorter—down from 12 seconds in the year 2000. With digital signage messages, you have a few seconds to grab a viewer’s attention. This means your message must be dynamic, understandable, and compelling.

Unless your message appears on a smartphone in the hand of your viewer, you will be competing for attention with the smartphone. Observe a group of millennials or other active smartphone users, and you will soon realize they rarely look up from their phones.

Use text sparingly. Instead, use visual clues. Bright colors, a crisp layout, and high-quality graphics are more likely to get attention than big blocks of “boring” text.

The effective use of screen real estate displays messages in a more attractive and interesting way. Full-screen videos don’t engage well, and therefore, their use is limited. Having two or three display regions of valuable user content is recommended.

Here is a three display-area example:

• Display Area One: Corporate-wide communications about the company.
• Display Area Two: Corporate-wide HR and workforce communications – examples are HR staff, safety reports such as days without incidents, health concerns, employee benefits, and emergency messaging.
• Display Area Three: Local facility communications – examples are key performance indicators (KPIs) displayed as data dashboards, employee milestones, local weather and alerts.

Meet employees where they are. Not everyone works at a desk.

Your message for digital signage content must be clear and easy to understand. For example, a warning that says, “Watch Out” immediately causes the viewer to think, “Watch out for what?” It is usually better to answer this obvious question with digital signage content, such as “Watch Out for Crossing Forklifts.”

Relevant content is highly desirable. Automation and message tagging with filtering help deliver relevant content according to the viewer’s interests and needs.

Content that is surprising and intriguing generates more interest. For example, the message “We found your missing $2,500 – Contact HR Benefits” is more powerful than “See HR to get matching funds for a 401k.”

A message such as, “In the case of an emergency building evacuation, do not use elevators; go down by using the stairs,” makes sense if displayed on the upper floors but would not make sense if shown on the ground floor.

Automation of content delivery is vital. This process can be achieved by content tagging and content filtering. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can improve content delivery by updating the algorithms with new insights.

Delivering content that suits the individual viewer and understands the local environment helps improve the messaging. Smart content can be adjusted for a specific location by adjusting for various parameters such as time of day, weather, and viewer demographics.

Power words are descriptive words that trigger emotions. Triggered emotions create engagement. Engagement increases retention. Use power words to create a desired emotional response in your viewers whenever possible.

A call-to-action (CTA) message helps motivate the viewer to do something. A CTA is measured by the number of viewers who take the action divided by the total number of viewers who see the message. This calculation creates a conversion rate. Digital signage messages of different layouts and presentations with the same CTA can be A/B tested to learn which performs better.

If the message depends on a time and date, it is annoying to display it after the time or date has passed.

A deadline creates the fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO can be a powerful motivator, and including a deadline may increase viewer response.

Have you ever seen a message that grabbed you? Think about the Super Bowl ads you may have seen, and you get the feeling of what engagement means. Engaging communication starts with good content.

Clever messages communicate the proper intent and get the message across. For example, “Safety First” is not very clever. Instead, a clever way to convey this message could be “Your Momma Says Be Safe, Don't Be a Fool.”

Amusing messages can lift employee morale and build a company culture with style. Here is an example, “Listen, before I had my coffee, I didn’t know how awesome I was going to be today either.” Having a different daily message or inspiring quote is a good way to engage viewers with the content.

Persuasion by charm is an effective way to motivate. Consider developing a cute company mascot if you don’t already have one.

Companies can motivate employees using a catchphrase that aligns with a business initiative. An example is “Quality is Job One,” which was used by Ford Motor Company to engage all staff to focus on quality output. The campaign was successful internally as a company-wide effort and was appreciated by the public. The company received many awards for the reliability of Ford products.

Some research studies show that remembering new words requires up to 17 repetitions. While you may want to avoid repetitions that create boredom, a good case exists for using repetition to form long-term memory of important concepts such as the company slogan.

If you pay attention to these tips when developing your content for digital signage, you will usually have a much better result. Request a demo from CONNECTEDSIGN® for digital content delivery systems.